Bridges2Scale: Testing Implementation Strategies

Adolescents and youths and their caregivers will receive six 1-2 hour workshop sessions that cover components on saving, and financial management. The sessions will: introduce participants to saving, saving strategies, career planning, and the utilization of financial institutions, including saving in banks.

Each adolescent and youth will have a mentor who will visit with them monthly for the duration of the intervention. The one-to-one mentorship program is intended to help AYaAIDS overcome a variety of challenges they face in daily life by fostering meaningful and lasting relationships with near peer or adult role models. Resilience theory posits that having a supportive adult outside the family reduces the impact of stress on AY's mental health. Mentors will be high school students who will be trained by the schools or NGO staff depending on study condition. All mentors will be reimbursed for their transport expenses to the field, plus an equivalent of a $5 gift card for airtime per visit.

Participants will be trained on investing in income-generating activities (IGA) during the FLT workshops and will be allowed to use up to 30% of their matched savings to invest in an IGA intended to benefit the adolescent and youth (AY) and their caregiving families. The IGA portion is intended to promote economic stability.

Each adolescent and youth (AY) will receive a youth development account, which is a matched savings account held in the AY's name in a financial institution under the Central Bank (Bank of Uganda). Any of the AY's family members, relatives, or friends is encouraged to contribute towards the YDA. The account is then matched with money from the program. The match cap (maximum family contribution to be matched by the program) will be an equivalent of US$10 a month per family or US$200 for the 20-months intervention period. AY who save the maximum amount will have $600 ($200 plus $400 in match-a 2:1 match rate).